The adventures and updates of Elder Britton Winterrose, serving in the Alaska Anchorage Mission. A young man who's recognized the amazing gifts and talents he's been given and, in gratitude, chose to devote the next two years sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Monday, April 26, 2010

The Wilderness is Calling to Me!

Man! First off, that story about C. getting stuck in the car and just calling and yelling instead of pushing the car out of the intersection was so stinking funny! That’s totally C.! Ha-ha. I miss him. There’s so much freaking mind-blowing snow in the mountains here. IT’S SO HARD TO NOT GO SNOWBOARDING. Well not that hard, cause I don’t have any gear. But my heart pines to be on the slopes up in the pass when we drive through. It was so beautiful Saturday when we were driving back from zone conference. I just keep imagining me, the brothers, dad and maybe our kids even some day in the future going heli-snowboarding or snow machining here. IT’S SO EPIC!!!!!!!!!!!

I tried to take some good pictures and I have a few cool ones that I want to share with you but my freaking camera is not working on with these computers, so I'm gonna have to probably send you the memory card, which sucks, cause then I can’t show other missionaries how awesome Valdez is!!!! And make them jealous!!! Ha-ha.

Seriously this place is amazing! SO you were wondering what I bought. I bought a fishing license. I was just gonna buy a 1 day one but it was 20 bucks, and I was like holy crap what if don’t catch anything today! And having talked to everyone I meet about the fishing I am fairly confident that I can make a full year license pay off so I spent the 145 bucks to buy it. NOW DON'T FREAK OUT!!! Understand that this license will (with a little luck and skill) be a tool of great sustenance. AND next year! I will qualify to get the low income resident Hunting/fishing/trapping license for 5 bucks, so it will all balance out in the long run..... Hahahah I feel like a sucker just typing this out. BUT I can’t pass up on a fishing opportunity like this. This is like the salmon mecca of the world!!!!!!!! People would kill to be in my position -in this area. Mom, Dad, I think you should consider retiring here. Dad could just hunt and then get his pilots license renewed, get a little float plane, and take up hunting!

Did I mention that shrimping season just started? April 15 it opened, and it’s awesome. I stinkin love shrimp. These members, the M’s, caught 1200 shrimp in one day. That’s one of those huge rubbermaid tubs full of shrimp. CRAZY! My companion and I have been eating halibut, shrimp, and salmon out the yingyang. It’s awesome. I don’t think I could ever get tired of it. The only sad thing is that up here in the Prince William Sound they aren't allowed to catch Dungeness crab. There are tons of them down there but because of the big Exxon Valdez spill some 20 years ago they still won’t let them catch ‘em. Oh well, I’m perfectly happy with Salmon, Shrimp, Halibut, Moose, Bear and Caribou.

Well that’s enough to show what’s on my mind on my P-day today. I’m gonna go fishing off the city dock here in a little bit with my companion. See if I can catch some cod or something. You really never know what you’re gonna get off the dock.

As for this last week! ZONE CONFERENCE! It was great! The drive to and from is long though, its 5 hours to Wasilla, so it was 5 hours there and then 5 back but we took a day to go down and a day for zone conference and half a day coming back on Saturday.

The conference was fun. It’s great to get to meet and interact with other missionaries ‘cause we don’t get to do that all the way out here in Valdez. We’re pretty isolated. My favorite part was when all the missionaries and Pres. and Sister Dance shared their testimonies. 40 missionaries bearing their testimony all at the same time is quite the spiritual booster! Then after zone conference we got to have interviews with pres dance and while my companion was being interviewed I got to sit and visit with Sister Dance. I love talking with here because she is so spiritual. She reminds me of Mom ‘cause mom is way spiritual. I told her about my journey that I took to get out on my mission. And that’s exactly what it was... a journey! I’m so grateful I made it though! I love being here and I love the people I am working with!

As for my companion and I, we get along great! He thinks I'm kind of weird sometimes. Haha. But that’s cool with me ‘cause I am! He’s a great dude though! I really admire his drive though, ‘cause he has been out the longest out of any missionary of our zone and even though he only has 3 months left he is doing his best! I can tell that he struggles at times but that’s why there’s 2 of us, so we can uplift and inspire one another to keep each other motivated! It’s great though! He’s a great Elder and I’m glad to have him as my companion!

HEY btw, I miss the guys from my district in the MTC and I want to send them a letter, so if you could look up the address of the office for the Georgia Atlanta North Mission I would be so grateful. Idk where I’m gonna find the time to write them though cause I barely even have enough time to write one person a week but I’ll do my best!

Ummm... I love Samoyeds....

I miss the brothers! I can’t wait till we have all had the opportunity to serve our missions and I can’t wait to see where we will all be in 8 years from now! It’s gonna be sweet!

Family, I love you. I want you to make sure that you know the truthfulness of the gospel for yourself! So I want you to read the Joseph Smith story that you find at the end of the pearl of great price, read it, and then pray to ask your Heavenly Father if it is true. I can promise you that he will tell you that it is, he told me. But you need to know for yourself. Then C, M, and D, after you receive your answer the next night you need to pray to know if you should serve a mission. You need to find out for yourself.

I love you guys!

James 1:5 tells us that if we ask God he will give and answer to us and upbraided not. Meaning even if he’s told us that same answer 1000 times he won’t be mad at you for asking again and he will still answer your question! HOW AWESOME IS THAT!! NO other teacher would ever be that patient or caring enough to do that. But because he is your Heavenly Father, he loves you and always wants you to know!!

I want you guys to know that I love you! I’ll send pictures as soon as I get this whole stupid picture thing figured out!

Miss ya all and love ya'll.

Love
Elder Winterrose
BRITTON!!!

(Tell Grandma and Grandpa Perkins that I said Hi and that I miss them and I’ll write them the next time I have a few free minutes!!!)

Maintained and updated by DeAnna Winterrose (his mom)

The adventures and updates of Elder Britton Winterrose, serving in the Alaska Anchorage Mission. A young man who's recognized the amazing gifts and talents he's been given and, in gratitude, chose to devote the next two years to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.